The present invention relates to methods for manufacturing silicone rubber that is adapted to promote cell adhesion and growth, and, in particular, to methods for providing silicone rubber with a modified surface or structure for enhanced cell attachment. The resultant silicone rubber is well-suited to a variety of tissue culture and medical applications.
Silicones surpass other elastomers in many performance categories because of their rigid silicon-oxygen chemical structure. The process of vulcanisation transforms this structure, allowing the silicon-oxygen polymer to become an elastic rubber. Silicone rubbers are stable throughout a temperature range of −46° C. to 232° C. They are odourless, tasteless and do not support bacterial growth. Silicone rubbers also do not stain or corrode with other materials. Most importantly, silicone rubbers are not physically or chemically degraded or altered by contact with body fluids, are not toxic or allergenic to human tissue and will not excite an inflammatory or foreign body reaction. Silicone rubbers can be formulated and tested for full bio-compatibility and compliance with guidelines for medical products. A further and particularly important advantage of silicone rubbers is that they have the highest oxygen permeability of known polymers.
Forming textured and porous silicone rubber allows all of these advantageous properties of silicone rubber to be exploited and enhanced. For example, a textured surface will not only greatly increase the available surface area for cell attachment, but will also encourage cell attachment. Furthermore, the increased surface area will increase the oxygen permeating through the silicone, enhancing the metabolic activity of the cells attached thereto. These advantages are very important in the various applications of textured and porous silicone rubbers discussed below.